TALES OF THE VICTORIANSCelebrating 30 Years of a Tea-TimeTradition that Feeds the Palate and the Soul

Stephanie Garrett and Lee O'Connor, popular readers for TALES

The award-winning Equity professional East Lynne Theater Company's popular Tales of the Victorians returns for its thirtieth year! Take tea at a lovely venue, indulge in homemade tasty treats, and listen to stories by famous American authors like O. Henry, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Mark Twain, and Zora Neale Hurston, read by ELTC performers and friends.

Performers include Michele LaRue, who tours with several shows including Someone Must Wash the Dishes: An Anti-Suffrage Satire, and whose late husband Warren Kliewer founded ELTC; Stephanie Garrett, who was in ELTC’s Lost on the Natchez Trace and Rain; Lee O’Connor, Sherlock in ELTC’s radio-style Sherlock Holmes’ Adventures; Suzanne Longacre, who’s performed throughout the country and in TV’s Guiding Light; and Gayle Stahlhuth, ELTC’s artistic director since 1999.

The summer schedule is Thursdays at 4:00, except for Two Scoops and a Story which is on a Thursday at 3:00 at The Henry Sawyer Inn. Tickets are $12 (paid at the door) and ages 12 and under are welcomed and free, except for Two Scoops, which is $6 to help to cover the cost of the ice cream. Reservations requested and may be made by calling ELTC at 609-884-5898 ​or e-mailing eastlynneco@aol.com.

On Saturday, October 19 our Tales is Poe by Candlelight at the First Presbyterian Church of Cape May, 500 Hughes Street, where ELTC is in residence. In November and December, enjoy stories told by an ELTC actor on the Ghosts of Christmas Past Trolley Rides, co-sponsored with Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities.

Scroll Down for More Information on the performers, Two Scoops and a Story, and Poe by Candlelight

ELTC storytellers are part of Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts andHumanities’ (MAC) Ghosts of Christmas Past Trolley Rides. Contact MAC for times and tickets: 609-884-5404. ​

If you would like to host a Tales of the Victorians, please contact ELTC for details. It's a wonderful way to meet folks who wish to learn more about you!The cost is $100, but the first $100 earned, may be given back to the host! Click here to download an application ​Call Gayle at 609-884-5898 or e-mail eastlynneco@aol.com for more details​

﻿TWO SPECIAL TALES RETURN IN 2019!

TWO SCOOPS AND A STORYPresented by The Henry Sawyer Inn (pictured left),and East Lynne Theater Company

Thursday, June 27 from 3:00pm - 4:00pmAt The Henry Sawyer Inn, 722 Columbia Ave.Enjoy all-natural ice cream and homemade cookies!To celebrate the recent 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), artistic director Gayle Stahlhuth will read sections from this famous Gothic novel. For only $12; $6 for ages 12 and under For reservations and information call the Inn at 609-884-5667or e-mail henrysawyerinn@verizon.net Proceeds benefit the not-for-profit East Lynne Theater Company

POE BY CANDLELIGHTSaturday, October 19 at 8:00pm The First Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes St. ELTC actors read tales by the master of the macabreLike other "Tales of the Victorians," tasty treats will be served!​Tickets: $12; ages 12 and under free

THE PERFORMERS​

​STEPHANIE GARRETTStephanie Garrett splits her time between Philadelphia, Cape May and Florida. She played Mary in ELTC's NJ premiere of Jan Buttram's Lost on the Natchez Trace, and also performed in ELTC’s Women and the Vote, Rain, The People of Cape May v. Johan Van Buren, and Christmas in Black and White with Gayle Stahlhuth. She performs regularly for the company’s popular “Tales of the Victorians.” Over fifteen years ago, as a volunteer at Historic Cold Spring Village, she became a storyteller, specializing in early 19th Century Cape May County African American History. Garrett has a BA and MA in Sociology and worked as a Sociologist and Human Resources Manager during her career in Federal Government. Upon early retirement she received the Meritorious Service Award, the highest award given by the Department of Navy to a civilian employee. She is past President of the Greater Cape May Historical Society.

MICHELE LaRUE﻿Raised outside Chicago, Michele LaRue has spent most of her life in Secaucus, NJ, working in theater and film in NYC and NJ. Her credits with ELTC include William Dean Howells’ Bride Roses, Susan Glaspell’s Suppressed Desires, and Gayle Stahlhuth’s adaptation of Henry James’ The Beast in the Jungle – all directed by her late husband and ELTC's founder and first artistic director, Warren Kliewer. She was also in Jesse Lynch Williams' The New York Idea, directed by Stahlhuth. For over 25 years, LaRue has been performing throughout the country in one-woman shows. She's been making people laugh with her Someone Must Wash the Dishes: An Anti-Suffrage Satire, written by Marie Jenney Howe in 1912, and directed by Kliewer. She has made people gasp in her re-imagined version of Yellow Wallpaper, adapted and originally directed by Kliewer, based on Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1892 horror story. She also portrays the Famous First Lady in Eve's Diary, adapted by Stahlhuth, based on the writings of Mark Twain. AND she's been performing Kliewer's own vibrant poetry about life in the theater in Places Please, Act One. LaRue was one of the first to read on porches as part of ELTC's Tales of the Victorians. Now, under her own title, Tales Well Told, she reads works of Kate Chopin, Edna Ferber, Mary Wilkins Freeman, O. Henry, Dorothy Canfield Fisher and other American writers, in various venues throughout the country. A popular piece recently has been her Gettysburg: One Woman’s War,three stories from Elsie Singmaster's moving 1913 classic book Gettysburg, She is an active member of New Jersey Repertory Company, which specializes in developing and producing new scripts, and the two performing unions: Actors’ Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA. As a theater editor-writer, she is also a member of the Drama Desk, a group of New York drama critics.

﻿SUZANNE LONGACRE Off-Off Broadway, Suzanne was featured in Hal Thompson’s productions of JB and Green Pastures with playwright Mark Connelly present. Regionally, in addition to being a veteran “Victorian Tale” reader with ELTC, she has performed with South Jersey Regional Theater, Cape May Stage, Ocean City Repertory, South Jersey Youth Opera, Kiss Me Kate with the Ocean City Pops, and the Festival Chorus and Master Works Choir of Ocean City, where she lives from May to November. She has also performed with the Fort Hills Players (Scarsdale, NY), Summit Playhouse, Greensboro Lyric Opera (Lady Anne in Camelot) and the Caldwell Players in her favorite leading role as Cora in Dark at the Top of The Stairs. She also has appeared in fourteen films, ranging from The Color of Money to Rocky V to The Bounty Hunter, as well as a brief appearance on TV’s General Hospital. Suzanne received dramatic training, performed, and was inducted into Theta Alpha Phi Drama Honorary Society at Ohio Wesleyan University. In midlife, after raising four children, she studied at BADA,the British American Drama Academy at Balliol College, Oxford, and at Weist Barron Ryan Film and TV School. For ten years, after retiring from her day job in public service, she and her husband sailed around the world. They still live aboard and cruise in warm climes from November to May. Member Actors’ Equity and SAG-AFTRA.

LEE O'CONNORLee O'Connor portrayed Holmes in ELTC’s William Gillette’s Sherlock Holmes, and has portrayed Holmes in all of ELTC's NBC radio-style adventures. He also appeared in ELTC’s The Leach Diaries, The Dictator, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Dick Spindler’s Family Christmas, the staged readings of Henry Sawyer and the Civil War and Our American Cousin, and is a storyteller for ELTC’s “Tales of the Victorians.” Other performing work includes The Odd Couple in Saigon while serving in Vietnam, and traveling throughout the country with his wife, Gayle Stahlhuth, in a two-hander written by Stahlhuth, Not Above A Whisper. Commissioned by The National Portrait Gallery, it is about Dorothea Lynde Dix, who fought for the rights of the indigent mentally ill. Aside from being ELTC’s Technical Director since 1999, he has worked at a variety of regional theaters, and his work in NYC includes Radio City Music Hall, Irish Rep, Primary Stages, and special events for Dancers Over 40. Member AEA.﻿

﻿Gayle Stahlhuth has performed off-Broadway (Manhattan Theatre Club, etc.) in national tours (Cabaret, Fiddler, etc.), regional theater (Gateway Playhouse in Long Island, etc.), television (various soaps, etc.), radio (jingles and Voice of America), and on the Chautauqua Circuit. Since becoming ELTC’s Artistic Director in 1999, she has produced 90 different plays/musicals (some returned for another season), including 20 world premieres and 10 NJ premieres, and directed over half of them. Her adaptations for ELTC include Tales by Twain, that also ran at Surflight Theatre; Spoon River, based on the famous Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters, and The Ransom of Red Chief based on O.Henry's classic tale. She’s been awarded commissions from The National Portrait Gallery, the Missouri and Illinois Humanities Councils, and grants from the NJ Humanities Council, the NYS Council on the Arts, and the Mid-Atlantic Foundation for the Arts. For several years she was a judge for the Emmy Awards in the field of broadcasting. She is an Active Member of the Dramatists Guild, SAG-AFTRA, and AEA. ﻿

ELTC's programs are made possible in part through funding from The NJ State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of The National Endowment for the Arts, The NJ Department of State, Division of Travel and Tourism, the generosity of our Season Partners, and the generosity of many patrons.